Ci / Ci
The Ci surname is a relatively rare multi-ethnic surname in present-day China. It is found among the Han and Lisu peoples, with a contemporary population of about 50,000, ranking 505th nationally. Its pronunciation is chí; in the Yingxian dialect of Shanxi it is zi, and in Luancheng and Yuanshi, Hebei, it is cì.
The Ci surname has four recorded lines of origin: it arose through the abbreviation and simplification of Tangci, from a branch of the descendants of King Qingxiang of Chu using a fief name as a surname, from descendants of Liu Bang who returned from Japan to the Central Plains and changed their surname, and through the sinicization of the Turkic office title “Cili.”
People bearing the Ci surname are distributed in Yuanshi and Luancheng in Hebei, Hunyuan in Datong, Shanxi, as well as Hunan, Taiwan, and Japan. Korea also has the Cili surname.
Ci Fei was a warrior of the state of Jing in the Spring and Autumn period and is said to have killed two flood dragons and saved everyone aboard his boat. Ci Yi was from Luquan, Hebei, in the Ming dynasty and served as magistrate of Zhechuan in Henan during the Xuande era.
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